Sara Wiles photos on display at Intertribal Center

Photographs and essays by Lander photographer Sara Wiles are on display in the Central Wyoming College Intertribal Education and Community Center October 17 through November 30.

The exhibit is called “Sara Wiles’ Arapaho Journey: Sharing Memories, Creating Kinship.”The images selected for the exhibit best reveal the relationships Wiles developed while photographing Arapaho people who became her friends and family, said Cory Daly, the chair of CWC’s Diversity Committee. Two Arapaho words are interwoven into the exhibit: “Ni’iihi,” which means “In a Good Way,” and “Neito’eino,” which means “we are all related,” Daly explained.

On Tuesday, October 18, the community is invited to a reception, entitled “In a Good Way: Celebrating Sara Wiles’ Arapaho Journeys,” at 5:30 p.m. at the Intertribal Center’s Miller Community Hall. Wiles has been working on the Wind River Indian Reservation since 1973, first as a student of anthropology and a consultant for language and culture projects.

Wiles began taking photographs, first to document social service programs, and later as a way to express her intense fascination with Arapaho people and their lives. In 2004, after shooting images for more than 30 years, she began writing stories to accompany the photographs, which has resulted in a book of photographs and essays entitled “Arapaho Journeys.” The book was published in the summer of 2011. The book documents the history of the Northern Arapaho people as well as the stories of individuals’ lives and contemporary events, and reflects her close ties to the community. Wiles will sign copies of the book during the reception Oct. 18.

Although she is widely known for her work on the Wind River Reservation, she had also exhibited photos from a wide variety of other life experiences, including travel in Latin America and around the western United States, as well as photographs from Ripley County, Indiana where she was raised. The exhibit is open to the public during regular college business hours.

Consistent with its mission to value diversity and to treat all individuals with dignity and respect, Central Wyoming College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, religion, or disability in admission or access to, or treatment or employment in its educational program services or activities. The college makes reasonable accommodations to serve students with special needs and offers services to students who have the ability to benefit.